Tag Archives: Samsung

DAVID EVANS has a mobile phone which is so old and knackered that the LCD screen is long gone. To phone his mates – such as Tone “the Phone” Dennis and Mad Mike Mageek, he pulls out a large piece of paper with our numbers written on it.

This phone has long been the subject of baleful comments by Tone and myself, comments that have been consistently ignored.

So we were truly truly shocked yesterday when Dave announced that his faithful old Samsung retainer was going into retirement forever, and that when we returned from Ole Bengaluru we’d find he had a new one.

At the wake for the phone, held at the Shakespeare’s Head hostelry at a crossroads on Carnaby Street, Dave duly proceeded to quaff four pints of Kronenburg in rapid succession, as he wept for what really must be the end of an era. ♥

MARKET RESEARCH firm Isuppli said that falling memory sales significantly slowed growth in the semi market in 2007.

AMD took an inevitable hit in 2007 compared to 2006, while Nvidia rose, as did Intel, which remained in first place, followed by Samsung.

DRAM revenues fell by 19.1 per cent in Q4 compared to the earlier quarter, while NAND flash revenues fell by 3.9 per cent in the period.

Forecasts by the manufacturers had been ebullient, based on the previous year. Dale Ford, senior VP at Isuppli said: “This was a complete role reversal for memory semiconductors compared to 2006.” Sales of memory integrated circuits had helped prop up the growth of the overall semi market, he said.

“If memory were excluded from the revenue total, the semiconductor market would have grown by 2.4 per cent in the fourth quarter. However, due to the influence of the weak memory market, total semiconductor market revenues fell by 0.5 per cent in the fourth quarter,” he continued.

Nanya and Qimonda were particularly badly affected, with their memory IC revenues falling by 32.4 per cent and 26 per cent for the year.

Data courtesy of Isuppli, figures for revenues are in millions of dollars. ♦

MIGHTY HARDWARE firm Dell has opened its factory in Chennai and is trying to emulate HP’s success in India by selling kit through distribution here.

That’s a mighty tough nut to crack. According to distributors and computer resellers, HP’s distribution network is near unassailable, and while there’s room for other players Dell stands little chance of wooing the Indian channel.

However, where Dell faces a Sisyphean task in the sub-continent, plucky little player Acer is doing pretty well. Lenovo, on the other hand, seems to have lost the plot.

The problem for Dell is that the channel isn’t prepared to be that sympathetic, after having to compete with a direct supplier for many years. HP, on the other hand, faced a battle with Samsung over two years ago, and consolidated its victory in India. ♣